Pink Poogle Toy Forum

You know, this whole situation seems familiar... wasn't there a thing a few years back where a group of hackers got into a bunch of the "top" players accounts and started to donate all their items and NP to the Money Tree? (Not the 4/4/04 thing, this was in 2002/2003.)

This type of thing makes me glad I'm poor enough to use the Soup Kitchen and have nothing worth over 20K in my SDB.

I've modified the settings for my "Trusted" sites in IE. I decided put scripts and activex on "prompt" -- I permit them if I'm playing games; otherwise, I deny scripts and activex. I don't know if that's effective cyberprophylaxis, but a few mouse clicks are way easier to handle than a wrecked account.

Does anyone know exactly which browsers can kind-of prevent this and which can't? I stopped using Internet Explorer today in favor of AOL (not for this reason, but because AOL is actually faster. Surprising, huh?) Anyway, AOL claims to be able to block spyware, spam, and hackers. Would it block this too? This is what I get for not being computer-literate.

theonlysaneone: No, AOL wouldn't block this sort of thing because it appears to be legit. It's not technically a virus, spam, the traditional hack, or spyware/malware. It's just a malicious script that appears not to be.

AOL will block some "hackers" (the term is really "cracker", though, as "hacker" is broader in meaning: "One who is proficient at using or programming a computer; a computer buff", while "cracker" is "One who makes unauthorized use of a computer, especially to tamper with data or programs.") in the traditional ways, but I think their claim is bogus because it's not truly possible to block them 100%.

It's like the difference between something that's waterproof and something that's only water-resistant. (AOL being simply resistant.) If someone's trying to get through and they're resourceful, they'll manage.

Eeak. This just sucks. This week I won't be looking at people's pet pages to see "full views" of beauty contest entries.

What a bummer. These people suck. They spoil the fun for everyone.

BTW I decided I'm not going to be voting on my main account. I'm using my newest side account for the neoboarding and voting instead. I made sure to change the password so it does not share any other accounts I have on the net. Sadly I won't be able to remember it without reading a written document for a while.

OK, so this kaos person was posting on the BD chat again tonight, under a different account. I guess the one from last night got frozen? He claims that Infamous (whatever numbers) did make the first thing, and he, kaos, has since edited it. Said that it is java and something else (not saying, just in case, but it's something I'd never heard of).

He also said that Neo has tried to stop him by a packet ban? - that's what took him about an hour to get past, and that he had been sent an illegal program email from TNT. Obviously, he doesn't care. He got another "big" account earlier today. He also "bragged" that he'd been banned from using his old school's computers for a year - got in, went to a grading page for teachers and put a virus in. Nice, huh? And gave the name of the school!

There were claims by other users that he had also hacked into peoples' paypal accounts (premium members?) which would go a long way toward explaining why new premium accounts can't use paypal. This was my worry - not just getting into peoples' neo accounts, but by getting their email and/or getting into premium accounts, he then has access to other personal RL information.

Oh, he also gave an email address for people who wanted to ask him questions and said he was considering making a faq page! The arrogance is stunning. I don't know if that email is for real, but I'm very tempted to contact the owner of the service, give the name and report them there for using the service to gain information for illegal means. I mean really, if he's doing all this, why wouldn't he go after someone's email addy and see what he can get from there?

I hope someone finds these people and stops them. I don't care if they're minors. They know exactly what they're doing, they know it's wrong, and if (the rumors are true) they're stealing money and any other RL info, they're already facing federal charges.

Dear gods, thank goodness now all I do on neo is the dalies and stock my shop. This incident does seam familar, but5 I can't remember where from. You're proberly right with the 4/4/04 thing or the older one. I just looked through the BD boards and saw nothing, what time are they (the scammers) normaly on?

When you do find the hackers bragging on the boards, please don't feed the trolls. But thanks for the reports. It's good to know which tactics they're using, so we can try to protect ourselves.

That's scary. I can't really comprehend why a person would risk legal action to ruin a game for other people.

I've stopped looking at customizable pages now. I never really realized how much of the fun of Neopets comes from the community aspect.

everconfused, I would send a letter to his ISP if I were you. If it looks like that's his real email and everything, it might stop this.

So does anyone actually know whether or not this is happening or just a case of ego-inflation for some braggart? I've heard the rumours the past few days, but no one I know or have talked to has encountered it first hand.

Though I don't go on Neopets much anymore, I switched off any Java and Active X settings for Neopets and made it Firefox-mode (I'm using Netscape 8.0 where you can use either that or IE-mode; handy if the webpage doesn't work properly). There's other passwords on my computer that I'm more worried about, like my PPT one. Don't want that getting out, do we?

That's it, I'm living on Subeta for the next week. <_<

So I guess the only thing to do, to truly be safe, is stay out of any place where players can enter their own code? Shops, lookups, etc.

I rarely visit boards anyway, and have only modest trades/np but my account is still pretty old (I've been around longer than featheralley.)

If someone could answer the question (first paragraph) I'd really appreaciate it. Thanks! I'm not a coding guru at all, and alot of this discussion went right over my head.

Those guys better watch out, if they push too hard Neopets will take legal action against them. It wouldn't be the first time they've sued a hacker (or whatever you'd like to call those guys).

I'm a bit surprised Neopets isn't taking action now. This has the potential to grow into a major security risk.

I was saving up for the packrat avvie, too, but I'll have to put that on hold until this all blows over. And my first BC... I was looking forward to browsing all those gorgeous pictures.